Flexing and tempering machine for leather soles and the like.



G. BASLER.

FLEXING AND TEMPERING MACHINE FOR LEATHER SOLES AND THE LIKE.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.I2, I912.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I x asses,

G. BASLER. F LEXING AND TEMPERING MACHINE FOR LEATHER SOLES AND THELIKE. APPLICATION FILED AUG. 12. l9l2.

1 Ill 8%9 l Patented May 30, 1916.

2 SHEETSS'HEET 2.

fl-IE COLUMBIA PLANOORAPH 0c, WASHINGTON, D c.

GEORGE BASLER, OF LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS.

FLEXING AND TEMPERING MACHINE FOR LEATHER SOLES AND THE LIKE.

Patented May 30 1916.

Application filed August 12, 1912. Serial No. 714,549.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, GEORGE BASLER, a citizenof the United States, and resident of Lynn, in the county of Essex andState of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Flexing andTempering Machines for Leather Soles and the like, of which thefollowing description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, isa specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

My present invention relates to apparatus for flexing and temperingleather stock more particularly shoe soles, the flexing being of anature to stretch the fiber of the leather and open the pores thereofand the tempering being effected and completed by treating the soles toa copious application of a suitable tempering fluid preferably justbefore the flexing thereof whereby the tempering fluid strikes into theleather and permeates the fiber in a manner to render the samepermanently flexible and pliable.

Apparatus of this general type is shown in my Patent No. 1,036,061granted August 20, 1912, and the present case is 1n certain respects inthe nature of improvements on the construction shown in said patent.

One prime object of the present case is to eliminate a large part of theendless belt conveyer system which in said patent is used to handle thesoles throughout, and I preferably substitute for the portion of thebelts extending past the liquid applying station and up to near theflexing station, a series of feed rollers adapted to convey and guidethe soles to and past the fluid applying station where the liquid isautomatically applied, and a succeeding pair of such rollers beingadapted both to squeeze and remove the excess liquid from the soles, and

mechanically promote the impregnation of the fiber with the liquid.

A further object of the invention is to make the entire machine morecompact so that its feeding-in end and delivering end are close enoughtogether so that a single operator can feed the soles in at one end andtake them out at the other without changing his position.

A still further feature of the invention has to do with improved meansfor supplying the liquid to the soles in automatically controlledquantities, shutting off the liquid when there is no sole at thetempering station.

The above and other features and objects of the invention will be betterunderstood from the following detailed description taken in connectionwith the accompanying drawings.

Referring to the drawings: Figure 1 is a side elevation of a machinewherein my invention is embodied; Fig. 2 is a plan view of thefeeding-in end including the liquid supplying station; and Fig. 3 is avertical section on line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

The feeding-in end of the machine is shown at'the left in Fig. 1 and infurther detail in the other figures, the soles or other stock piecesbeing fed between a lower power driven roll 1 and an upper roll 2 havingits periphery corrugated or otherwise roughened to better grip the solesfor drawing them in. The rolls 1 and 2 are mounted in suitable bearingsin aframe work 3, the bearings of the roll 1 being stationary and thoseof the roll 2 being vertically slidable and normally pressed downward bysprings 42 to cause the soles to be pressed between the rolls 1 and 2and gripped for feeding es pecially by the roll 2. The roll 2 is shownas alittle back from the roll 1 to locate the receiving mouth at a moreconvenient angle for the operator. From between the rolls 1, 2 the solespass directly to a liquid applying station formed as a wide shallowtrough or tray 5 mounted in position so that the soles are advanced overits adjacent edge along the guard and director piece 6 down into thetrough or tank, being pressed down thereinto by spaced apart serrateddisks 7 fixed on a shaft 8 which is mounted in vertically slidablebearings normally pressed downward by springs 9. The disks 7 are shownas three in number and the intermediate one is directly over a plate 10pivoted at 11 to the tank bottom and engaged from beneath by theupwardly projecting stem 12 of a cone valve 13 normally pressed upwardto its seat by a spring 14:, the stem 12 in this position holding theplate 10 up a little distance above the bottom of the disk 7 The valve13 controls the passage of tempering liquid through a pipe 15 to whichit is delivered from any suitable pressure source and it will beunderstood that as a sole is fed between the disks 7 and the plate 10,the plate is forced down and the valve pressed'open to permit thedelivery of tempering liquid to the trough and the sole therein, suchsupply being out OK at once felt hus st ongly pres d er and a lower beltas soon as the sole has passed on its way out of the trough.

To insure a thorough and even wetting of all parts of the soles as theypass through the trough, its bottom which as seen in Fig. 3 is formed onan arc of gentle curvature, is provided at its respective sides withribs 16, 17 the ribs 17 at one-side alternating with the ribs 16 at theother side, so that each set of ribsis opposite spaces at the other sideof the trough. This keeps the soles up from the bottom of the trough sothat the liquid can effectively contact therewith to impregnate the sameand it insures an impregnation of all parts of the leather surface inthe passage through the trough. It will be. observed that the directorand guard plate 6 extends in from the trough at a proper angle not onlyto guide the soles in between the disks 7 and through the bottom of the.trough, but being up at some little angle. from the bottom of thetrough, it serves also as a guard to prevent the splashing out of liquidfrom this side of the trough as the soles enter. The trough or tank .5is preferably provided with a suitable overflow outlet 18 to preventmore than the proper amount of liquid accumulating in the tank foreffectively wetting up the grain side of the soles which as fed in aredownward, the excess of liquid flowing down to a receptacle 19 beneath,this receptacle being shown as provided with sloping walls 20 at itsouter side adapted to catch drip from other parts of the temperingstation. From the temperingstation thus provided the soles pass upwardand forward to be caught between upper and lower rolls 21, 22 preferablyof felt or like material mounted on shafts 23, 24 respectively, theshaft 24 for the lower roll being mounted in stationary bearings and theshaft 23 for the upper roll being mounted in vertically slidablebearings normally pressed downward by the springs 25 so that the solesare pressed between these rolls. It will be observed'that; the roll 21is a little forward of vertical alinement with the lower roll 22, thepurpose of this, being to effect a better bite or grip of the rolls onthe soles. The rolls 21 22, between which the soles are to squeeze outthe excess liquid and also promote the even and effective impregnationof the fiber by the liquid in a'manner that understood. rom between therolls21,22 the soles. advance to an adjacent receiving mouth 26. formedbetween an upper belt 27 28 which pass around adjacent rollers 29, 30arranged to form such mouth to receive thesoles and cooperative V th thepa o the'belt system to hold the beltsstrongly pressed together througha part'of their path of movement. From the ro ls 9,3 the e s 28pm dow awill be readily and forward around a relatively small flexing roll 31mounted on a shaft 32 and bending around the same at a sharp angle, theypass thence upward and backward around another somewhat larger flexingroll 33 fixed on a shaft 34. From this roll the belts continue to movetogether in parallelism for a short distance to the delivery point 35where the upper belt passes up over a tension roller 36 having itsbearings normally pressed out to hold the belt under proper tension bysprings 37 with adjustable backings 38. Thence the upper belt passesaround a return roller 39 and past an intermediate adjustably mountedguiding roll 40 back to the roll 29 to complete its cycle of movement.From the delivery point 35 the lower belt passes around a roll 41 and anintermediate adjustably mounted roll 42 to a tensioning roll 43 mountedin like manner as the roll 36 and thence back around the roll 30 tocomplete its cycle of movement. Thus as the soles enter the receivingmouth 26 between the held together belt portions, they are strongly andevenly gripped on all portions of their surfaces by the belts andadvanced around the flexing roll 31 which flexes them strongly andevenly from the lower side, which it will be remembered is the grainside and the side which has been treated with the tempering liquid.Thence the soles still strongly and evenly pressed between the beltspass up around the upper reverse flexing roll 33 where they are flexedin the reverse direction. This upper flexing roll which it will beunderstood tends to compress the grain side of the leather and open andstretch the pores of the other side, is considerably larger than theroll 31 for the reason that this reverse flexing if carried to too greata degree would tend to crumple and wrinkle the grain side of the stockin an objectionable manner.

Power for operating the several parts of the conveying system thusprovided may be imparted in any suitable manner; as shown the shaft 34is the prime driving shaft having fixed thereon a belt pulley 44 whichdrives the lower roll shaft 32 by spur gearing 45 fixed on therespective shafts. It also drives the roll shaft 24 by means of sprocketwheels on the respective shafts engaged by sprocket chains 46. The shaft24 in turn as shown drives the shaft 8 by means of a sprocket chain 47engaging sprocket wheels on the respective shafts, this chain beingshown as guided around a lower idler sprocket wheel 48 and also passingat its forward reach around a sprocket wheel fixed on the forward shaft49 which carries the roll 1; the shaft of the upper roll 2 being shownas in driven engagement by spur wheels 50 on the respective shafts.

Among the marked advantages of my fact that the flexing belts are keptfrom getting soaked or wetted to any considerable extent by thetempering liquid, as the soles are fed into and past the liquid applyingstation by the rollers described, the last set of which pressing uponthe soles with felt or like surfaces squeeze the excess liquid out ofthe soles after the manner of a wringer, along with their action ofmechanically promoting the impregnation of the fiber by the liquid. Thismeans of protecting the belts from be coming soaked is important, sincewhen they become wetted to any considerable extent, they are apt tostretch and do not properly cling to the rolls, and further are apt torust the rolls and convey the liquid around to the various bearings withconsequent injury thereto. The present machine also insures an adequateand elfective application of the tempering liquid by reason of therelatively wide shallow tank or trough through which the soles areprogressed, in connection with the special ribbed bottom of such tank,whereby the contacting of the liquid with all parts of the leathersurface is insured. The belts in my improved machine being much shorterthan in the machine of my said patent and with no long stretches, do nothave to be as strong and perfect as before, and have a much greaterperiod of effective serviceability. It is to be further noted that theroller arrangement shown for feeding in the soles and moving them pastthe fluid applying station in connection with the belt arrangement forflexing, makes the whole machine much shorter and more compact thanbefore, and by reason of this it is quite practicable to have thefeeding-in end and the delivering end of the machine close enoughtogether so that a single operator can, with one hand feed in the soles,and with the other remove them without changing his position.

I do not desire to be limited to the-precise constructional detallsshown, as I am aware that these can be varled to a considerable extentwithout departing from the spirit of the invention, and I thereforerefer to the appended claims rather than to the foregoing illustrativedescription to indicate the scope of my invention.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent is:

1. A machine of the kind described, comprising a fluid applying stationformed as a relatively wide shallow trough, a liquid supply theretohaving a downwardly opening valve with a presser plate movable in thebottom of said trough with connection to open said valve, means fordirecting stock pieces through said trough into contact with said plate,and means arranged to receive the stock pieces from said fluid applyingstation and bend them about an arc of small radius while held stronglyand evenly pressed upon the surfaces thereof.

2. A machine of the kind described, comprising a fluid applying stationformed as a relatively wide shallow trough, a liquid supply connectionthereto having a downwardly opening valve, a presser piece movable inthe bottom of said trough with connection to open said valve, and meansfor feeding stock pieces through said trough and into yielding contactwith said presser piece.

8. A machine of the kind described, comprising a fluid applying stationformed as a relatively wide shallow trough, and means for feeding stockpieces through said trough, said trough having ribs formed in two sets,a set at the receiving side of the trough alternating with a set at thedelivering side thereof.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, inthe presence of two subscribing witnesses.

G. L. Booms, WALLACE G. WRIGHT.

@MDi-Ml of thla patent may be obtained. for five centt each, byafldretslng the Committioner of ratenta, Washington, 1D. (3.

